Oof, programmers calling LLMs "AI" - that's embarrassing
...but LLMs quite literally come from the field of computer science that is referred to as "AI." What are they supposed to call it? I'm not a fan of the technology either, but seems like you're just projecting your disdain for ChatGPT.
Does your school have a robotics team or something along the lines of computing? That would be a good option. Also if you are still in high school and plan on going to college, you still have plenty of time to learn.